I'm a strategist for bestselling authors and billion dollar brands like American Apparel, Tucker Max and Robert Greene. My work has been used as case studies by Twitter, YouTube and Google and has been written about in AdAge, the New York Times, Gawker and Fast Company.

Why Wouldn't Planned Parenthood Take $500,000?

I tried. I really did. I was ready to arrange a $500,000 donation to Planned Parenthood in Texas. The donor was in the car on the way to meet the CEO, checkbook in hand. But then Planned Parenthood called and told him to turn around. They didn’t want his money.

Want is the only word for it. Because, Planned Parenthood sure as hell needs it. See, in Texas, Governor Rick Perry has viciously attacked family planning and health organizations like Planned Parenthood. Not only eliminating local funding, but depriving them, this year, of more than $35 million in federal funding. The situation has already become “acute:”

“Nearly 25% of Tarrant County (Fort Worth) residents lack health insurance, and 15% live below the poverty level… The 2011 legislative session was an especially difficult one for Planned Parenthood in Texas. The Legislature cut family planning funding by more than two-thirds, and now the non-partisan Texas Legislative Budget Board estimates that more than 300,000 Texans will lose access to family planning, cervical cancer screenings, breast health exams and other critical preventative health care services…”

Tucker Max (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Those are their words, not mine. So why did Planned Parenthood turn down nearly a half a million dollars they could put to good use?

As an advisor and strategist for big authors and big brands, I find myself solving strange problems. The problem Tucker had come to me (that led to this) was one them:

“Ryan, I have a huge tax burden this year. I can reduce it with a large donation to charity, but I want to promote my new book at the same time. Can you come up with something cool that does both?”

The first thing out of my mouth stunned him—which isn’t easy to do considering the audience.

“What if you gave a bunch of money to Planned Parenthood and they named a clinic after you? They need donors, it’d be awesome and you’d get a ton of positive press out of it for a change.”

I wasn’t joking but I figured the idea was crazy. But whatever the origins of the idea were, we ended up seriously considering it out of a genuine desire to contribute to Planned Parenthood in a state where it was desperately needed. As long as I’ve known Tucker—a card-carrying member of the University of Chicago School of Economics who also has a law degree from Duke—he has been pro-choice. He was a wild partier for a long time, and by extension, a strong advocate for the use of contraceptives and regular STD testing.

Tucker thought about it for a few days and called me back, “They really did help me and my girlfriend when I was poor, I really do believe in their mission, and if this money doesn’t go to them it goes to the government anyway. Let’s do it.”

His excitement was quickly reciprocated by Planned Parenthood’s Dallas office. When Tucker’s assistant reached out and expressed our interest in making a donation large enough to name a clinic in Texas (fully disclosing his bosses name and occupation), Aimee Boon, a VP there, gushed over email:

“I am so pleased that your employer is interesting in considering a named gift…We would be honored to have his support, and his gift would make an enormous impact in our ability to meet the needs of our rapidly growing community in North Texas.”

The crazy idea looked like it could actually happen. Several more emails were exchanged laying out the donation tiers and what naming rights would cost (between $250,000-$500,000). After discussing the details over the phone expressing how serious we were about this and proving Tucker’s financial qualifications, a final lunch was set with between Tucker and the CEO Ken Lambrecht a few days later in Dallas. Tucker set out to make the 3 ½ hour drive from his home in Austin.

And then Planned Parenthood got in its own way. They called in a panic:

Planned Parenthood: “We have concerns about accepting this donation, we understand what you write is satire, but we’re worried about the perception.”

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Have you ever even read his books? They’re hilarious and they’re about the stupid stuff (and girls) he did when he was young. Who hasn’t been there? He doesn’t say anything about women being of less value than men nor does he think of himself more highly than women, he’s just honest. Let’s face it, we’ve all had one-night stands we regret, Tucker just chooses to HONESTLY write about his instead of hiding them and hanging his head in shame. He agreed to this because he actually cares about the organization and what they want to do, not to make a joke of them or to push his books. He’s got plenty of fans, we already had his books pre-ordered, don’t worry.

If Tucker Max or Ryan actually cared about Planned Parenthood like you claim, they would have given the money and gotten the tax break quietly instead of trying to turn it into a PR stunt and even trying to get a building named after him.

Basically they were trying to buy PP’s endorsement and they turned them down, and rightfully so. As a woman, I would actively avoid gynecological exams and breast cancer screenings from a clinic with a building named after a guy who got famous for unapologetically treating women like shit and labeling himself as “honest”.

And if I was in a situation where it was the only clinic I could use, due to low resources or availability, I would be physically sick before, during and after the visit. I’m glad that PP rejected this offer, it saved many women the emotional trauma of knowing that their reproductive health was provided by a sleazy creep who makes money by endorsing his misogynistic behavior.

I also don’t think I could go to a clinic named after him. I once overheard someone reading a chapter from his book aloud and laughing at what was sexual humiliation. It made me feel ill and his name makes me feel ill. Boohoo a misogynist is finally being held accountable for being a misogynist who supports gender inequality in sexual relationships.

@leosboots, seriously? Its up tight women like you that tucker writes about. Don’t worry not because you are or aren’t a slut, your grouped into the “stupid” category. God you women get so worked up over such silly things to get worked up about. I am willing to bet that if you had no other alternative, you would not get physically sick. If you did, it would probably just be because you were pregnant.

Tracy, please elaborate. Please explain to me what the rest of the world is thinking. I would love to know. And yes I am aware i misused “your” with what should have been “you’re” if that’s the irony your referring to, its the internet so get over it. My ability to care about perfect literary skills on the internet are very lacking. My rant does make sense, because it is in fact true. Our society has this warped concept of morality. Just because you accept a dotation from someone, doesn’t mean you agree with them.

You use the term “rehabilitate some of his PR” Doesn’t that mean you knew from the start that Tucker’s reputation would rightfully cause problems? Getting mad because it actually happened because someone higher up than a local guy took a look is not a reason to slam Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has enough attacks to fend off that they don’t need to add to it by naming a center after a known misogynist who is trying to suddenly say he isn’t one anymore.

Sure, of course it was to partially rehabilitate Tucker’s PR–and we were willing to give A HALF MILLION DOLLARS to a good organization to do it. It would have helped people. But no, PP didn’t want that.

Somehow I don’t think that $500k would be worth the brand annihilation that would surely result from Rush Limbaugh, FOX News and the rest of the right wing crowing “See! We were right! PP gladly took money from a guy who calls women sororstitutes! They admit to being sluts, and took the money!”

Oh my God, an organization dedicated to helping women refuses to take money from a man who routinely dehumanizes and victimizes them? I’m shocked.

But yes, you’re right; poor Tucker Max is the victim here. How dare PP not take his money (and name a clinic after him)! Had I been in PP’s position, I would have been a bit more blunt with Max: “Sir, your entire corpus of work is dedicated to turning women into the objects of your rather sad sexual fantasies. You treat women as horribly as any dyed-in-the-wool misogynist I’ve ever had the misfortune of meeting, and your request that we name a clinic after you seems to fit with your stance that women’s reproductive health is merely fodder for your misogynistic ‘humor’. Take your money and ‘rehabilitate’ your image somewhere else.”

And no, Max was not going to give PP HALF A MILLION DOLLARS; he was hypothetically offering them $500,000 as a way of easing his own tax ‘burden’. So despite your comment below that dismisses hypotheticals, you’ve basically constructed an entire argument against PP based on one.

That’s some truth right there, everyone. Tucker wanted PR and Mr. Holiday was apparently all too happy to help. Charity is only charity if it is not self-serving, otherwise it’s just investing. Faux outrage at it’s best.

Can you feel the wind tickling your hair as the points of all those comments flies over your head?

The sad part is that this whole discussion probably plays into your rotten PR plan. TM doesn’t care about anyone but himself and this whole facade of righteous indignation is just hiding your delight at the fact that this fake attempted altruism put your scumbag client’s name in the news again until the lowest common denominator remembers why even they stopped caring about him.

Can you feel the wind tickling your hair as the points of all those comments fly over your head?

The sad part is that this whole discussion probably plays into your rotten PR plan. TM doesn’t care about anyone but himself and this whole facade of righteous indignation is just hiding your delight at the fact that this fake attempted altruism put your scumbag client’s name in the news again until the lowest common denominator remembers why even they stopped caring about him.

Because he would never waste the opportunity to generate PR and drama, and position himself at the center of a big controversy when he has a new book to promote. If Max had made an “anonymous” donation, he would have done so very loudly and made as big a show as possible about how the Mean Old Feminists were prejudiced against his good, spotless name, and how he thwarted them by being the bigger man and generously deciding to donate without demanding that they name a PP clinic after him.

But instead, look what he got to do! Promote his new book (with the help of a Forbes columnist to white-knight for him) without donating a dime! Now he can donate his money somewhere else, shame PP for having standards, and get a way bigger PR bang for his tax-deductible buck! There is a phrase for what Max is doing, with Ryan Holiday’s help. It’s called “concern trolling”. Google it if you gotta.

Tucker Max’s webpage has his favorite quotes on there calling women “sluts”, “c..nty lunatics”, and “whores”. Wouldn’t it have been better to suggest to him that he release a statement about how “Mr. Tucker will be moving on from his juvenile, misogynistic comedy and to show his seriousness in changing his views on women, he would like to donate $500,000.00 to Planned Parenthood.”? I suspect two things, though, THIS story is the actual marketing ploy (I had no idea who this guy was until the story) and he will be continuing to degrade women and feed into the fodder of women are sluts. I know I just gave his webpage two hits, so bravo, Mr. Holiday. I just hope you are happy that this story sent a woman to his webpage (to check into this story) only to find that he thinks we are all less than human and our only worth is sex. Planned Parenthood was right and I applaud their decision.

Who cares if he did? The issue is naming rights. He wanted his name on the building and with his name comes his favorite quotes about how women are whore and sluts and worse. Maybe you should check out his site and read about how he coerces women into performing fellatio on him and how when they do he calls them derrogatory names. Planned Parenthood is there to give women dignity and respect. This guy is all about taking it away.

If PP had suggested a press release like that I would have seriously advised Tucker to take it. But they didn’t–because it wasn’t about money, it was about passing judgement. That is a slippery slope for PP to go down.

Welcome to the world of celebrity. They treated a potential donor poorly and so he took his money and went home. I’m an advisor not his boss. I can’t control him or them, I can only give my perspective. This post was it.

“Sexist humor is not simply benign amusement. It can affect men’s perceptions of their immediate social surroundings and allow them to feel comfortable with behavioral expressions of sexism without the fear of disapproval of their peers,” said Thomas E. Ford, a new faculty member in the psychology department at WCU. “Specifically, we propose that sexist humor acts as a ‘releaser’ of prejudice.”

Yep, both Allison & Vickie are correct, imho. Mr. Holiday, if you are truly an effective strategist, why wouldn’t you have worked with Mr. Max’s PR folks, Mr. Max himself to figure out the best win-win approach w/PP, AHEAD OF TIME (knowing there would be a good probability that they as a national womens’ organization, would have an issue w/Mr. Max’s past/present derogatory and mean-spirited (yeah-yeah I know, “humorous”) writings, movie, etc.? It sounds more like the actual offer was a publicity stunt, not sincere since you didn’t really think about how accepting Mr. Max’s money would affect the PP organization, beyond them receiving the funds.

They are currently fighting for the lives (due to Gov. Perry) as you already stated; they’ve just had to deal w/the Susan Komen debacle, and now you guys come along w/this scheme. Really? It seems to me, the two of you basically cared more about selling books and supposedly rehabbing Mr. Max’s reputation (as you also admit) than helping PP. As others have already suggested here, why didn’t/hasn’t Mr. Max just dropped off a bag full of the mega-bucks he has and you not smearing PP as you have, in this column. It all feels very suspect, sorry to say.

My apologies if Mr. Max’s intentions were true and heartfelt, but the way this is being explained and relayed to us, at least in this column, it appears it’s all about Mr. Max, then truly about the closing of the much-needed PP clinics in Texas.

Didn’t even know who this guy Tucker is, so I guess your PR stunt worked. But rehabbing his reputation means nothing if he doesn’t change his approach toward women. Seems he made his fortune by degrading women. Accepting his donation, even anonymously, would mean accepting the way he made his fortune. Distasteful to PP — distasteful to most women.

Surely you can understand that while Tucker Max has millions of female fans, there’s still millions of other women out there who DON’T like to be called sluts, whores, cunts, and whatever other degrading names you “jokingly” call us

I am pretty sure it is judgment of, interestingly, women, South Florida, and Planned Parenthood.

But let’s say I use your logic that we should just accept his style of humor (degrading/misogynistic) to be just humor, I would expect you would also find racist jokes that use slurs to not be offensive? That we should all just expect that the n-word is funny and acceptable as long as a comedian says it? That anything that anyone says about any oppressed group is funny as long as they tout themselves as a comedian?

Ryan, what other charities did you end up giving the money to? Since Tucker was so into the advancement of women’s reproductive rights, I’m assuming most, if not all, of the other charities involve family planning and women’s rights? If they are, I will be genuinely impressed. If you just gave it to a smattering of cancer/kids/panda organizations, I won’t be surprised.

There is no difference when the judgement is merely disguised as a joke. Fuck outta here with that “surely you understand” shit (i.e. you must be too sensitive/too stupid to UNDERSTAND TRUE COMEDY!!!) It used to be absolutely fine to openly express hate about “inferior” people (women, people of color, gays). Now it’s harder. The only way to do it without being fired is through humor. Don’t you think careless young men who believe women are sluts, don’t feel like using contraception, read and buy into TM’s whole shtick, contribute to women having to use PP’s services? People laugh at what they think is true.

It shouldn’t have anything to do with their “brand”. Their sole purpose is to help women. They need money to do that. And, its PP’s job because there the ones who need the money. Tucker needed a tax break. They decided PP was the route they wanted to go. Nobody should have to work to give away 500K.

Unfortunatly Ryan, many people don’t understand the difference. As soon as a joke becomes offensive, many people no longer see the humor involved. It’s sad really. So what if its mysogyny? It’s funny. Anyone who has actually read any of tuckers stories at length would realize he doesn’t just trash women, plenty of other types of people get degraded as well. People need to learn how to relax and no worry about things that don’t actually matter. Like Tucker Max calling women some bad names.

He isn’t claiming to no longer be a misogynist. He just isn’t the guy he was when he was younger. No wonder 37% of young americans can’t even locate the USA on a map. So uneducated and brain washed by the media into thinking the media wants you to think. This is 500K were talking about that they said no to. They didn’t attempt to re-work the deal. Why does it matter where the money came from when your trying to help people. Money is more important then perception when your funding is being cut.

Well, maybe they draw the line at “Tard Blog”? Just takin’ shots in the dark here, but I sure wouldn’t want to be associated with that drivel, and I darn sure wouldn’t let you try to hold my financial situation hostage in order to make that affiliation.

You do realize you’re calling out the wrong Twitter account, right? @MaxTucker isn’t the account. Its @TuckerMax. I’m all for calling someone out for what they tweet, but, at least call out the RIGHT someone!

First off, they never said that all of a sudden Tucker Max was no longer a “misogynist,” assuming he actually is one, which, as a woman, I don’t even think he is. Also, to think that Planned Parenthood was in the right for turning his donation down is preposterous. That was half a million dollars, why wouldn’t they take it? The day that they turned it down, they closed clinics in Texas. Honestly, I am not pro-choice, but if I were, I would go to that clinic, purely based on the fact that it was named after Tucker Max. I’m going to assume I’m not the only person who thinks that way. Free money is free money, it shouldn’t matter who it comes from.

Tucker Max is no misogynist. Calling a few people names does not mean he generalizes a whole sex of the human species as “sluts.” He is objectified by every female he has had an interaction with post fame. Tucker has become a sexual icon amongst a lot of females and to have any experience with him to some, entitles bragging rights amongst circles of friends. It is these girls that he will occasionally call names. If you took the time to read his books, specifically the last book, he states that he IS done with his fratire writing style. He IS moving on to other types of writing that will appeal to a different crowd. There is no mention of him ever saying females are less than human and only worth sex. In fact, he mentions multiple platonic relationships between him and females and how it is perfectly acceptable for guys to be “just friends.” His best friend is in fact a female as well. I’m sure there are plenty occasions of you referring to a guy as a pig. Does this mean all guys are pigs and you are anti male? At the end of the day, half or more of his fans are females and its not because he wrote three books and gave away a fourth book for free that is solely meant to degrade women. He was donating for a good cause, that despite your moral beliefs, has and continues to help people everyday with their services.

Misogynist? Tucker Max is far from a misogynist. My fiance reads all of his books and finds them just as funny as any guy. Like the article said, “half of his fans are females.” Just because women do crazy things in order to sleep with him does not make him treat women horrible. That is like saying women who strip or hook are treated like garbage by men. They choose that lifestyle just like the women in Tucker’s blog choose to sleep with him. He was genuinely trying to do a good thing here and you persecute him for actually caring?

He’s not mad. Holiday is still doing the PR thing. He’s using his role at Forbes, and you readers to do it.

I especially like the part where he equates Planned Parenthood to the one-stop abortion and STD center for incoherent partying rich kids. “When we were poor” my eye…. During what part of Tucker Max’s time at University of Chicago’s School of Economics or at Duke was that?